From 1974 until 2007 The National Center For Stuttering treated an average of 450 new clients a year, making it the largest center of its kind in the world.

Beginning in 2008 and continuing to the present, the Center shifted its focus to finding a cure.

A cure for stuttering has certain defining characteristics: First, It must require no practice. Second, it must be achievable quickly. Third, it must be permanent. Fourth, it must be safe. And fifth, It must be inexpensive.

While a cure for everyone who stutters does not yet exist,there appears to be a cure for one-third of adults who do.

Furthermore, this cure is readily available, works in less than two weeks, appears to be permanent and has proven to be safe. It costs about two dollars a month and can be purchased anywhere.

The cure is Thiamin, better known as Vitamin B1. For the one in three adults in the world who stutter, stuttering
can and should be thought of as a:

Thiamin deficiency disorder.

Below is a summary of a study. Read it carefully. Later, we will indicate how, working with your physician, you can test to see if you be cured.

Thiamin and Stuttering; a preliminary study

In 1951 in a scientific journal there appeared a study of the effects of Thiamin (vitamin B1) on the speech of stuttering children. Children of various ages were given 30 mg of the vitamin each day. Slightly more than half showed clear improvement in their speech. This was particularly noticeable for the two and three year olds, where more than three quarters were greatly improved.. There seemed to be no positive effect for Thiamine above the age of 5. The author’s conclusion was that 30 mg of Thiamin was useful in reducing or eliminating stuttering in children, providing they were under 5.

Decades later, aware of that early study, when parents called The National Center For Stuttering requesting guidance for their child who had recently begun to stutter, along with certain stress reduction recommendations, we recommended giving 30 mg of Thiamin daily - provided the child was between the ages of 2 and 4 and the parents first obtained permission from their pediatrician.

Over the years, as a result of this recommendation, a body of anecdotal information was accumulated regarding early childhood stuttering and Thiamin. Here were the relevant observations: If Thiamin proved to be effective, the result occurred within a week or two and was dramatic. It was as if a ‘switch’ had been thrown, and the stuttering, as reported in the 1951 study, was either markedly reduced or absent.

Almost 60 percent of the children showed the ‘switch’ effect. For those children, the possibility of a placebo (the power of suggestion associated with taking a fake pill) seemed unlikely. On the other hand, if a week or two passed with no improvement, none would likely occur, regardless of the length of time the supplement was taken.

We looked at the percent syllables stuttered from two groups of adults who stutter, one taking 300 milligrams of Thiamin (vitamin B1)* daily and the other, a placebo (the fake pill). In all, 38 males between the ages of 21 and 37, participated. The experiment lasted for 2 weeks. This time period was selected because prior clinical experience and the 1951 report both indicated that positive speech effects of Thiamin, if they were to occur, would take place within the first two weeks.

All the subjects were instructed to take one pill with each meal for a total of three pills daily. Each pill contained either 100 mg of Thiamin or a placebo (the fake pill). The subjects were assigned randomly to each of the two groups and received either Thiamin or the placebo in a classic randomized, double-blind presentation format. Their speech was recorded and evaluated by several experts with decades of experience working with people who stutter. An average percent syllables stuttered measurement was obtained from several different speaking situations.

Results

6 of the 19 subjects showed the ‘switch’ effect. For these, the average percent syllables stuttered, post supplement was less than 1% with all but one of subjects showing no stuttering whatsoever. Prior to taking the vitamin, these same 6 subjects showed an average percent syllables stuttered of 9%. The results of a statistical analysis revealed that this was a significant result, one that could not have been expected to have occurred by chance. Thus it seems very likely that the Thiamin caused the improvement in their speech.

Using the 6 subjects as a cohort, they have now been followed for more than three years. They have continued with the Thiamin regimen and their fluency has been maintained, warranting the inference from them that it is likely a cure.

Conclusion

One may conclude from this that for almost a third of adult males who stutter between the ages of 21 and 37, 300 mg of Thiamin, taken daily, is of significant value in either substantially reducing or permanently eliminating their stuttering.

The results of this study have enormous implications. For example, in the United States alone, a million people can be reasonably expected to have their stuttering cured or dramatically reduced by taking Thiamin.

One might think that Speech Pathologists would jump at the chance to try Thiamin with their clients or that researchers would be encouraged to attempt to reproduce this finding. Unfortunately, this has not been the case - even though both groups have been repeatedly encouraged to do so and have been shown the evidence.

It is clear that we need larger numbers of people willing to try Thiamin. So:

If you want to try Thiamin yourself, here is what you must do:

First, before beginning, you must speak with your physician to get the OK to proceed. Although the side effects of Thiamin are virtually non-existent* and as a water soluble vitamin excesses are simply urinated out, you may be taking a medication or have a medical problem that can interact with Thiamin or reduce its effectiveness. Of course, even with the OK from your physician, common sense dictates that in the unlikely event you experience any negative consequence, you must immediately cease taking the vitamin.

With the OK of the physician, you can the go ahead and obtain 100 mg Thiamin (vitamin B1) capsules or tablets from a health food store. Use only the form of Thiamin called Thiamin Hydrochloride because it is the most common and the one used in our study.

Here is the two-week protocol:

Take one 100mg Thiamin Hydrochloride pill at each meal, for a total of 300mg per day.

Do not take antacids, barbiturates or diuretics.

Do not eat raw fish or raw shellfish.

Do not take tea, coffee or carbonated beverages.

Do not use tobacco or alcohol

If you experience a positive effect as a result of taking Thiamin, please email us and let us know. We would like to follow you via email to see how your fluency progresses. We’d be happy to answer any questions and also can bring you up to date on further advances as they occur. You may email us at:

For the rest of you, take heart. We are continuing our research to improve our current cure rate. Recently, we have been investigating the role of certain magnesium compounds that show promise for enhancing the effects of Thiamin.

Thanks for taking the time to read this very important message.

We wish you all the best and remember to contact us with your positive results. Your experience can help The National Center For Stuttering’s mission of finding a simple cure for this world-wide problem.